4 Hour Body Cheat Sheet: Accelerated Fat Loss

If you’ve read The Four Hour Body, you’ll know there’s some amazing information in there. Kudos to Tim Ferriss and all the research and testing he’s done. What’s also clear, though, is that without taking some notes, it’s not likely you’ll be able to get back to the information easily.

Enter the ‘cheat sheet’. So named, because it is the crib-notes version of a specific piece of information, put together in a handy, useful page. This one focusses on the recommendations made for accelerating fat loss.

Hope you find it useful, and please pass it along, and tweet it out! Updated with Tim Ferriss’ new recommendation to not take the Green Tea Flavanols before bed due to insomnia risk (thanks @rmrf for this tip!).

Good question Nancy – I suggest Monday, as you want the PAGG effect in full fource for cheat day, and I think the day after too, as all that food goes through you. Monday is a pretty clean day, but any mid week day would work too.. i would make sure you’re taking it again by Friday though, in prep for cheat day.

Thanks for your comment. Though Tim did release a note about excluding Green Tea Extract if you are having problems sleeping at night, many people are taking the full PAGG in the evening without a problem, myself and Kat included.
I take the AGG tablets at 7.30am, 11.30am, 3.30pm and 7.30pm, then I take the ‘P’ before bed, at around 11.30pm with a Cal/Mag tablet. The AGG coincides with my 4 slow carb meals, and the P is right before bed.
If anyone has problems with sleeping, cutting out green tea is one recommendation, however this warning may have come about from people using alternate brands which may not have been truly decaffeinated.
As with the rest of the Four Hour Body program, always take care with your own experiments, and if something isn’t working, change it!

Tim posted som corrections on his 4 Hour Body Blog. PAGG before bed was corrected to PAG (without the green tea extract). If you’re not having sleep issues including green tea extract before bed then I wouldn’t see why it would be a problem. You can check his blog for other corrections that he noted pertaining to the book.

Hey Glenn, thanks for commenting. That’s basically my thinking too. Everything in the book, of course, is only as current as everyone’s best knowledge at the time, and likewise any corrections posted were as best to accurate at the time. I think some people were reporting insomnia, so the correction was published – but I think there’s a high probability those people were taking un-decaffeinated green tea extract, meaning what they were getting was like a very strong cup of tea before bed.

Hi Luke
Just wondering about your 4 Hour Body Cheat Sheet: Accelerated Fat Loss.
You say “GLUT-4 Exercises prior to and 90 mins after meal (air squats, wall press, chest pull)…”
Is this every day or only on Cheat Day?

Tim mentions the GLUT4 exercises as damage control, but he has mentioned more recently that it’s a good principle for anyone looking for the key takeaways from the book, without going to the effort of reading it.
For example, for someone who’s eating a meal that’s not ideal, then can do these exercises 5 mins before, and 60 mins after the meal, and it’ll help less of the food energy store as fat.
Obviously there’s a limit to how many things you can remember and keep track of during the day, so I say pick a reasonable amount for you, and don’t worry too much about doing everything that’s mentioned in the book.
The GLUT4 exercises are an option for every day – just like ice baths, ice packs, cinnamon, PAGG, etc. It’s a matter of combining what works for you to get results. Probably if someone followed every single thing for a month their results could be amazing.. however they well might no have had any time to do anything else!

Hi Nancy, I understand what you mean. I think the idea is that the 120 seconds of activity is between squats and wall presses, and this small amount won’t hurt muscle recovery at all. In fact, if you have soreness, a little bit of activity is likely to reduce soreness and increase healing.

The supplements aren’t necessary. At a minimum, I’d recommend Calcium/Magnesium at night, which is mentioned in the book. You will still lose without any supplements though, 80% of the results will most like come from what you’re eating. Exercise is actually optional, however is recommended. A half hour walk, 3 times a week is a great option. Also, you could think about the kettlebell swing exercises mentioned in the book, and doing them 3 times per week. The key is to not do too much exercise, as this will increase the stress on your body, which makes it harder to lose fat.

Hi, I’m reading the book right now but not starting full on because I’m breast feeding and concerned there might be some what of a detox happening or major hormonal swings happening on cheat day that might translate into the breast milk. Any thoughts on this?
Also things like grapefruit juice and lemon are they just meant to be used on cheat day? (I’m trying to loose the pregnancy fat)

Good thoughts. I think when your body is providing nutrition to another, that should be the number one focus. I’m definitely not qualified to comment at all on any science/medical background in this, but it’s up to you to decide if you’re comfortable or not. Personally, I think it sounds like you’re making good choices.
The grapefruit juice is for cheat day only, with coffee preferably. Lemon juice can be taken as a dash in water, all through the week, especially with meals. It can lower the glycemic impact of a meal. Just allow a few hours after drinking this mix before brushing your teeth – the acid in lemon juice can temporarily weaken the enamel.

Hi Luke,
I see that alot of people use salsa, but I thought that tomatoes where on the “forbidden” list? Is this really the case? Secondly, I am trying to shed bodyfat and wanted to know if there was a certain amount of calories I need to eat from days 1 through 6. I feel like I’m eating too much and I don’t want to hinder my results from eating too much. Thanks.

Hey Chari,
Thanks for your question.
Salsa is one of those ‘use sparingly’ additions that can help defeat the boredom. Tim mentions using 2 tbsp (thereabouts) in the morning with eggs, to flavor them.
You don’t need to worry about eating too much with the slow carb foods – though you should keep aware of eating ‘just enough’ to keep you going from one meal to the next. You don’t want to feel like you’re stuffed when you’re done eating, and it’s OK to feel slightly hungry just before you next meal. Use hunger as your guide, as the slow carb foods are as dense in calories as typical Western food that is packed with sugar, oils, carbohydrates and the like.
Do slow carb for 4 weeks or so, and then measure your results, to see what you think. You might want to fine tune things a little, or keep going the way you are.
All the best,
Luke

Hello! Thank you for compiling this great info. I am on day one of week one of the 4hb diet. i usually begin training for my annual half-marathon and duathalon beginning at the end of february. will doing so disrupt my weight loss? My existing workout regimen includes 2-60min. bootcamps, 1-60min. kickboxing class, 1-45min. insanity dvd, 1 to 2-60min. trx session, and 4 days of 45min. weightlifting sessions, covering all muscle groups- legs 2x, per week. I enjoy working out and it is a big part of my social outlet and stress relief. How much exactly can i do and still see weight loss and muscle gain. My main goal is to decrease my body fat % while maintaining or slightly gaining muscle. I appreciate your guidance! -Alison

If fat loss is your number 1, and your running is number 2 – then I’d recommend cutting back the workouts, quite severely.

Working out this much could easily see your body storing fat, and wasting muscle away, which is a bad recipe for progress. Worse yet it can leave you open to injury, and make losing fat more and more difficult.
Consider a training regime like this:
Weights 2x a week, 30 min sessions – split body parts so each is only trained once a week
Sport specific training – 1-2x a week – 20-45min sessions. Check out the chapter in the book on how Tim trained for a long distance race. Building up leg strength is very important – the stronger your legs, the easier the same run becomes – because it’s using less of your potential strength to run. There’s more to it, so make sure you investigate the book further.
Stick with training that’s focussed on your sport – scientific research show there’s little cross-over benefit in ‘fitness’ from doing a ‘cardio’ type of activity. That is, that cycling doesn’t much help running performance- it helps cycling performance. And that therefore kickboxing, for example, won’t help running performance. Contrary to popular belief, it’s much less about training a general ‘cardio’ fitness, and more about training to specific sports that makes you more efficient, and able to have more stamina/performance in those particular sports.

I am using a mac and unable to download the cheat sheets. Can you send to me or direct me where I can get them. Looks like there is some great info. I’m on week two and have to keep going back to the book, which I don’t mind, but would enjoy having info as it relates to the diet in one place. Mostly interested in Accelerated fat loss sheet.

Hi Wendy,
Sorry to hear you’re having troubles downloading the sheets. I promise that it’s just as possible to do on a Mac as it is on a PC. You might need to Control-Click on the link, and use the ‘Save Target As…’ option, to get them. Let me know how you do.
Luke

I am having a hard time eating with in an hour of waking up. I have been doing the 4hB for a little over a month now. I have lost 4lbs and 3.5 inches so far. I am a mom and mornings are busy. Any recommendations for a quick nibble first thing in am until I can feed myself a couple hours later? Like a mini breakfast before the real deal? Thanks so much,

You have a couple of options here. Firstly, you can view this as an extension to your nightly fast, and therefore not eating anything until your proper breakfast. This works for some, but not for others.
Alternatively, if you could pre-make breakfast ingredients, you might find a whole breakfast easier to eat in the morning. Hard boiled eggs, pre cooked lentils, frozen spinach can all be microwaved together in about 4 minutes, and eaten in less than 10. See how you do with that. Slow carb really aims to get away from snacking. One reason is that a less than complete meal can digest more quickly, another reason is that it may not feel like you’ve eaten anything at all, contributing to a sense of not being satisfied, and lastly, if you eat food at time intervals of around an hour, you may get food ‘stacking’ in your stomach, but not getting into your small intestine in due time, as the stomach won’t let partially undigested food through, so if new food is added to what’s there, it will all sit in the stomach for longer. This can be quite uncomfortable.

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